Black Hole of Boston

John Pike Insight Magazine

| December 13, 2002

Boston's Big Dig, a construction endeavor that will eventually
create a highway underneath the city's central artery to ease
traffic congestion, is being called 'one of the worst cases of
government mismanagement in recent history' by citizens, media, and
the U.S. Senate Governmental Affairs Committee alike. Originally
proposed with a price tag of $2.56 billion, the Dig's current
projected cost is $14.6 billion ? 500 percent higher than intended,
twice the cost of building the Panama Canal and just under the
price of constructing the 32-mile Chunnel under the English
Channel. Though it has reduced traffic problems as intended,
Insight Magazine muses that Boston may become a national
laughingstock - except for the fact that federal money is being
used.
--Erica Sagrans